cœli interiffent, vile damnum: Ceteri cederent ITALIA, nifi cer 56 tam ante diem profanos ritus exuiffent." Tacit. ann. lib. ii. c. 85"Externas cæremonias, EGYPTIOS, JUDAICOS que ritus compef "cuit coactus qui fuperftitione ca tenebantur, religiofas veftes cum "inftrumento omni comburere," &c. SUETON. TIBER. c. 36. These wife heathens, obferving fomething in the general air, and genius and spirit of the two religions to be the fame, efteemed the differences of their dogmas too frivolous to deferve any attention. NOTE [DDD], p, 413. XENO ENOPHON's conduct, as related by himfelf, is, at once, an ΧΙ inconteftible proof of the general credulity of mankind in those ages, and the incoherencies, in all ages, of mens opinions in religious matters. That great captain and philofopher, the difciple of SoCRATES, and one who has delivered fome of the moft refined fentiments with regard to a deity, gave all the following marks of vulgar, pagan fuperftition. By SOCRATES's advice, he confulted the oracle of DELPHI, before he would engage in the expedition of CYRUS. De exped. lib. iii. p. 294. ex edit. Leuncl. Sees a dream the night after the generals were feized; which he pays great regard to, but thinks ambiguous. Id. p. 295. He and the whole army regard fneezing as a very lucky omen. Id. p. 300. Has another dream when he comes to the river CENTRITES, which his fellow-general, CHIROSOPHUS, alfo pays great regard to. Id. lib. iv. p. 323. The GREEKS, fuffering from a cold north wind, facrifice to it; and the hiftorian obferves, that it immediately abated. Id. p. 329. PHON Confults the facrifices in fecret, before he would form any refolution with himself about fettling a colony. Lib. v. p. 359. He was himself a very Skilful augur. Id. p. 361. Is determined by the victims to refuse the fole command of the army which was offered to him. Lib. vi. p. 273. CLEANDER, the SPARTAN, though very deLirous of it, refufes it for the fame reafon, Id. p. 392. XENOPHON mentions an old dream, with the interpretation given him, when he first joined CYRUS, p. 373. Mentions alfo the place of HERCULES's defcent into hell as believing it, and fays the marks of it are fil remaining. Id. p. 375. Had almoft ftarved the army, rather than lead them to the field against the aufpices. Id. p. 382, 383. His friend, EUCLIDES, the augur, would not believe that he had brought no money from the expedition, till he (EUCLIDES) facrificed, and then he faw the matter clearly in the Exta. Lib. vii. p.425. The fame philofopher, propofing a project of mines for the encrease of the ATHENIAN revenues, advifes them first to confult the oracle. De rat. red. p. 392. That all this devotion was not a farce, in order to ferve a political purpofe, appears both from the facts themfelves, and from the genius of that age, when little or nothing could be gained by hypocrify. Befides, XENOPHON, as Eppears from his Memorabilia, was a kind of heretic in thofe times, Nn3 which which no political devotee ever is. It is for the fame reason I maintain, that NEWTON, LOCKE, CLARKE, &c. being Arians or Socinians, were very fincere in the creed they profeffed: And I always oppose this argument to fome libertines, who will needs have it, that it was impoffible but that thefe philofophers must have been hypocrites. NOTE [EEE], p. 417. BACCHUS, a divine being, is reprefented by the heathen mythology as the inventor of dancing and the theatre. Plays were anciently even a part of public worship on the most folemn occafions, and often employed in times of peftilence, to appease the offended deities. But they have been zealously profcribed by the godly in later ages; and the playhouse, according to a learned divine, is the porch of hell. But in order to fhow more evidently, that it is poffible for a religion to reprefent the divinity in ftill a more immoral and unamiable light than he was pictured by the ancients, we fhall cite a long paffage from an author of tafte and imagination, who was furely no enemy to Chriftianity. It is the Chevalier RAMSAY, a writer, who had fo laudable an inclination to be orthodox, that his reafon never found any difficulty, even in the doctrines which freethinkers fcruple the moft, the trinity, incarnation, and fatisfaction: His humanity alone, of which he feems to have had a great stock, rebelled against the doctrines of eternal reprobation and predeftination. He expreffes himself thus: What ftrange ideas,' fays he, would an Indian or a Chinefe philofopher have of our holy religion, if they judged by the schemes given of it by our modern freethinkers, and pharifaical doctors of all fects? According to the odious and too vulgar fyftem of these incredulous fcoffers and credulous fcribblers,' The God of the Jews is a moft cruel, unjuft, partial, and "fantastical being. He created, about 6000 years ago, a man and a woman, and placed them in a fine garden of ASIA, of which there are no remains. This garden was furnished with all forts of trees, "fountains, and flowers. He allowed them the use of all the fruits "of this beautiful garden, except one, that was planted in the midst "thereof, and that had in it à fecret virtue of preferving them "in continual health and vigour of body and mind, of exalting "their natural powers, and making them wife. The devil entered "into the body of a ferpent, and elicited the first woman to eat of "this forbidden fruit; fhe engaged her husband to do the fame. "To punish this flight curiofity and natural defire of life and know"ledge, God not only threw our first parents out of paradise, but "he condemned all their pofterity to temporal mifery, and the greatest part of them to eternal pains, though the fouls of these innocent children have no more relation to that of ADAM than to "thofe of NERO and MAHOMET; fince, according to the scholaftic drivellers, fabulis, and mythologifts, all fouls are created pure, 66 "and and infufed immediately into mortal bodies, fo foon as the foetus ❝is formed. To accomplish the barbarous, partial decree of pre"deftination and reprobation, God abandoned all nations to dark "nefs, idolatry, and superstition, without any faving knowledge or "falutary graces; unless it was one particular nation, whom he "chofe as his peculiar people. This chofen nation was, however, "the most stupid, ungrateful, rebellious and perfidious of all nations. "After God had thus kept the far greater part of all the human "fpecies, during near 4000 years, in a reprobate ftate, he changed “ all of a fudden, and took a fancy for other nations befide the Jews. "Then he sent his only begotten Son to the world, under a human "form, to appease his wrath, fatisfy his vindictive juftice, and die "for the pardon of fin. Very few nations, however, have heard "of this gofpel; and all the reft, though left in invincible ignorance, "are damned without exception, or any poffibility of remiffion. "The greatest part of those who have heard of it, have changed on"ly fome fpeculative notions about God, and fome external forms "in worship: For, in other refpects, the bulk of Christians have "continued as corrupt as the reft of mankind in their morals; yea, "fo much the more perverfe and criminal, that their lights were ས greater. Unless it be a very small select number, all other Chri“Atians, like the pagans, will be for ever damned; the great facri"fice offered up for them will become void and of no effect; God "will take delight for ever in their torments and blafphemies; and "though he can, by one fiat, change their hearts, yet they will re"main for ever unconverted and unconvertible, because he will be "for ever unappeasable and irreconcileable. It is true, that all this "makes God odious, a hater of fouls, rather than a lover of them; "a cruel, vindictive tyrant, an impotent or a wrathful dæmon, rather "than an all-powerful, beneficent Father of fpirits: Yet all this is a mystery. He has fecret reasons for his conduct, that are im"penetrable; and though he appears unjuft and barbarous, yet we "muft believe the contrary, because what is injustice, crime, cruelty, " and the blackeft malice in us, is in him juftice, mercy, and fove"reign goodness." Thus the incredulous freethinkers, the Judaifing Chriftians, and the fatalistic doctors, have disfigured and difhonoured the fublime myfteries of our holy faith; thus they ⚫ have confounded the nature of good and evil; transformed the moft monftrous paffions into divine attributes, and furpaffed the pagans in blafphemy, by aferibing to the eternal nature, as perfections, what makes the most horrid crimes amongst men. The groffer pagans contented themfelves with divinizing luft, incest, and adultery; but the predeftinarian doctors have divinized cruelty, • wrath, fury, vengeance, and all the blackeft vices.' See the Chevalier RAMSAY's philofophical principles of natural and revealed religion, Part II. p.401. 6 Nn4 The The fame author afferts; in other places, that the Arminian and Molinift fchemes ferve very little to mend the matter: And having thus thrown himself out of all received fects of Christianity, he is obliged to advance a fyftem of his own, which is a kind of Origenism, and fuppofes the pre-existence of the fouls both of men and beafts, and the eternal falvation and converfion of all men, beafts, and devils. But this notion, being quite peculiar to himself, we need not treat of. I thought the opinions of this ingenious author very curious, but I pretend not to warrant the juftnefs of them. INDEX. INDE X. **The Numeral Letters refer to the Volume, and the Figures to the Page. A A BASEMEMT, not the natural confequence of polythe ifm, ii. 398. Abftraction, what, ii. 555, Note [P]. Absurdity, not always the greatest in polytheism, ii. 400. -, greedily coveted by popular religions, ii. 401. Acheans, employed force in forming their league, i. 411. their number, i. 385. Addison quoted, i. 83. 172. ii. 176. Æfchynes quoted, i. 292, 381. Efchynes Socraticus quoted, ii. 340. Etolians, their number, i. 385, Agathocles, the tyrant, his cruelty, i. 364, 477, Note [CC]. , to ourself, ibid. &c. --, to others, ii. 284. &c Agriculture, how beft encouraged, i. 232, 233, 371, 372. Alexander the impoftor of Lucian, his artifice, ii. 125. his emulation of Bacchus, ii. 399. Alexandria, its fize and numbers of its inhabitants, i. 389. Allegory, has naturally place in polytheism, ii. 381. Anacreon quoted, ii. 354. Analogies, and fometimes flight, have influence in jurisprudence, ii. 228, 330. Anaxagoras, the firft Theift, and the firft accused of Atheism, ii. 567, Note [ZZ]. Ancillarioli, what, ii. 567, Note [XX]. Angels, modern, equivalent to the deities of the philofophers, ii. 381. Animals, their reafon, ii. 110, &c. Antioch, its fize, i. 388. Antipater, the Cyreniac, his faying, i. 157. 2 APRIAN, |